Certain materials exhibit intrinsic optical properties that can be detected and analyzed spectroscopically. Other materials or items which are not inherently spectroscopically active can be marked with a spectroscopically active marker or tag. The detection and analysis of spectroscopically active materials or tags is common in laboratory settings where a sample of material may be spectroscopically interrogated and analyzed. In this case, the intrinsically spectroscopically active substance or the taggants must be measured with a detector. In some cases the detector is the human eye (e.g. strong upconverters or strongly fluorescent species). In other cases detection is accomplished with a device or instrument (the detector). In such an instance, the detector may use software to aid in data acquisition, processing, or analysis.
One common characteristic of many known detectors is a tendency to operate slowly, with long interrogation times, for example 0.1-10 seconds and long data analysis times, for example 0.1-10 seconds. This is true whether the objects being interrogated harbor a taggant, or whether an intrinsic optical property of the object is being measured. Thus, such detectors and readers are not well-suited for inline applications, where a large number of items are analyzed in real time, and where the total time allotted for each analysis and possibly process control decision is small, for example less than 1 second.
Where such in line instrumentation does exist, the information content provided is very simple. The embodiments disclosed herein are direct toward overcoming one or more of the limitations noted above.